There Is My Home: Somali Bantu Farmers of Lewiston, Maine is the story of Hawa Ibrahim and Batula Ismail, two Somali women reconnecting with their agricultural roots in central Maine urban landscape.

Born and raised in the Jubba River Valley of Somalia, Hawa Ibrahim and Batula Ismail, try to support their families as farmers in Maine. Both learned to farm at a young age from their parents. When civil war broke out in 1991, their villages were repeatedly raided for food. Thousands of friends, family and fellow villagers were brutally killed. Hawa and Batula fled and eventually reached safety in refugee camps in Kenya. In 2004, they were resettled in Dallas and Baltimore respectively. But they struggled to adapt to city life. In 2004 they learned of Lewiston, Maine, an urban hub in close proximity to farmland. That’s where this story begins.

There Is My Home: Somali Bantu Farmers of Lewiston, Maine was produced by Amy Brown of Lanes Island Productions.